Re: does water freeze if no room to expand?

[Rondo JEFFERY <rjeffery@WEBER.EDU>]

Point out to the student that water pipes break in the winter, causing great damage.  A former colleague of mine grew up on a farm in Minnisota.  It was his responsibility every fall to drain the water out of the tractors, otherwise the engines would crack when the temperature got down to -40 degrees.  This student must put antifreeze in his own car to prevent the engine block from cracking when the temperature gets below freezing.

The statements "such that there was no room to expand" and "the container was unbreakable" do not include any known material, even hardened steel or rocks.  These facts from experience should be more persuasive than the calculations others have already suggested, since the pressures you will calculate are way out of the realm of his or anyone else's experience.

Rondo Jeffery
Weber State University
Ogden, UT 84408-2508
rjeffery@weber.edu 


> > > Robert.Cohen@PO-BOX.ESU.EDU 11/02/01 03:08PM >>>
> A student of mine asked me this question:
>
> Suppose liquid water was placed in a container such that there was no room
> to expand.  If the container was unbreakable, would the water eventually
> freeze if the temperature got cold enough?
> If so, when?
>
> I didn't look into this in great detail.  I couldn't find anything in the
> archives or on the web.
>
> --------------------------------------------
> Robert Cohen           rcohen@po-box.esu.edu 
> 570-422-3428         http://www.esu.edu/~bbq 
> Department of Physics
> East Stroudsburg University
> East Stroudsburg, PA  18301
> --------------------------------------------